


Particular and Personal

by rhodrymavelyne



Category: Dark Shadows (1966), Dark Shadows (1991)
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-27 00:17:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20751164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne
Summary: Kitty Soames finds Rachel dead, only to find her path crossed by Count Petofi. Only this time, he had nothing to do with her lost cousin’s death.





	Particular and Personal

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of my own version of Dark Shadows. In it exists the 1897 storyline, only Kitty Soames looks like Victoria Winters. Kitty also takes a more active part in the storyline earlier than in the 1960s series, trying to find her long lost cousin, Rachel Drummond. Rachel still looks like Maggie Evans, only Maggie is a lot more spirited and talented, more like the Dark Shadows revival version of Maggie. Poor Rachel, alas, is very like she was in the 1960s version, including in the way she died. Judith and Edward are, too. I don’t own Dark Shadows, but sometimes it owns me. :)=

She was dead. The only relation Kitty had left in the world, whom she’d been trying so hard to find. She’d tracked Rachel Drummond all the way to Collinwood, hoping to find her, only she was now a corpse, lying like a discarded doll in the cottage attached to Collinwood. 

“Used and thrown away.” Count Petofi’s voice invaded the room, even as he stepped inside. “Those who touch Josette Collins’s past often share her fate.”

“Josette Collins’ fate or your plans?” Kitty didn’t even bother looking at the man, who could squash her as a bug if she wished. “What are you doing here? Was my husband not enough? Did you have to take the only relation I have in the world as well?” 

“Ah, my poor Lady Hampshire, lovely as you are, I fear you’re simply not important enough for me to torment in such a fashion.” Petofi grinned and withdrew a cigarette from the pocket of his smoking jacket. “I have more tasty fish to fry.”

“Such as Josette Collins?” Kitty lifted her chin and finally met the dark eye of her enemy. He was no longer wearing the rose-colored glasses. Perhaps he no longer wished to regard the world in a rosy light. “I’ve been told I resemble her. There’s a portrait in the Old House said to be my very likeness.” 

“My dear Lady Hampshire, the very reason you are now Lady Hampshire is because you are practical and clever.” Dark eyes which saw through the layers of disguise which she’d placed over her soul like veils, crinkled at the corners, amused by her efforts. “The very notion that you should be connected with one so ridiculously romantic as Josette Collins is absurd.” 

Count Petofi made a bow, gesturing with a gloved hand to the dead girl, Rachel Drummond, to the blood pouring out of her torso. “Why, I’d as soon expect a connection with this poor, pathetic creature.”

“She was a victim, Petofi.” Kitty gazed down at Rachel’s slack features, so innocent and surprised by death as she’d been by everything. “Not that I expect you to care about such a thing.”

“A victim of Evan Hanley’s magic and the Reverend Gregory Trask’s ambition, not my own.” The count shook his head slowly. “I am not your enemy in this matter, my dear.” 

Evan Hanley. The Reverend Trask. Kitty marked the men’s names, rolled them around in her mouth, seasoning them with a taste for vengeance. They were Rachel’s murderers. Even Gregory Trask, who’d claimed the girl from her youth as a protegé and a trial had regarded her as nothing more than an expendable tool.

“Ah, poor, lovely Judith. To fall prey to a lowly fortune hunter, who has deluded you into thinking he was heavenly. You were doomed before I ever arrived.” Petofi gazed off into the distance. Perhaps he was actually communicating with ‘Judith’. 

Kitty guessed the lady in question was Judith Collins, Edward’s sister. Petofi must have taken a personal interest in her. Poor woman. 

“Don’t worry, my dear. I have no intention of letting any of sweet little Rachel’s killers go unpunished.” The count glanced over at the lady. “Nor of interfering with your plans.”  
“You have no interest in the Collins fortune. Money is all too easy for you to obtain.” Kitty cocked her head to the side and considered the man who’d ruined her husband. “You wish to control the Collins family members themselves or perhaps to torment and destroy them? Just as you did Gerald.”

“Nothing so petty.” Count Petofi waved a hand, dismissing the memory of Gerald’s destruction as if it had been nothing. 

Kitty seethed at this, trying to control her emotional reaction. This man was still just a man for all his power and he was willing to talk. He might reveal a weakness in all his pompous posturing if she listened with care. 

“No need to worry, my dear.” Petofi smiled, graciously allowing her to plot and scheme. “You can have the Collins fortune and Edward. You can enjoy Quentin’s charming company as well if you like, but only for a time.” A cold glint sparkled in his eyes. “Just remember the latter man belongs to me.”

Well, well. 

“You don’t want the whole Collins family, just Quentin.” Kitty mused on this. “Why? What value does he hold to you?”

“A particular and personal kind, which only I can ultilize.” Petofi stoked his chin. “Let’s just say I’ve been searching for a young man like him for a very long time.”

Kitty closed her eyes. She wasn’t a woman given to bouts of sympathy, but she couldn’t help pitying Quentin Collins. 

Anyone who caught Count Petofi’s eye deserved pity.


End file.
